U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to use “hundreds of millions of pounds” from dormant bank accounts to fund community projects, while Business Secretary Vince Cable said lenders “ripped off” customers.

Cameron said he will press ahead with a proposal set out in the coalition government’s program to establish a “Big Society Bank” to finance moves by charitable groups and not-for-profit companies to take over jobs currently done by the government.

“These unclaimed assets, alongside the private-sector investment that we will leverage, will mean that the Big Society Bank will over time make available hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance to some of the most dynamic social organizations in our country,” Cameron said in a speech in Liverpool, northwest England, today.

Cameron said the idea ties in with his plans for a general overhaul of the public services, as the government tries to narrow a record budget deficit. The new Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that 490,000 public-sector jobs will be lost by April 2015.

“We’ve got to get rid of the centralized bureaucracy that wastes money and undermines morale,” Cameron said. “In its place, we’ve got to give professionals much more freedom and open up public services to new providers like charities, social enterprises and private companies so we get more innovation, diversity and responsiveness to public need.”

Existing Legislation

A law passed in 2008 under Gordon Brown’s Labour government allows the government to use money from dormant bank and building-society accounts “for social or environmental purposes.” An account is dormant if the holder has made no transactions over a period of 15 years.

A senior Labour lawmaker, Tessa Jowell, said in an e-mailed statement that Cameron’s proposals are “simply a brass-necked rebranding of programs already put in place.”

The coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats elected in May is maintaining pressure on the financial-services industry following the bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Lloyds Banking Group by Labour.

Parliament’s Treasury Committee announced a probe into banking to run alongside a government panel looking at the future of the industry. Cable has attacked the level of interest charged by banks, saying lenders in Britain face less competition now and can keep costs higher.

‘Bigger Temptation’

“One of the negative side effects of this crisis is that our banking system that was already very concentrated, is now even more concentrated so there’s less competition, less choice and a bigger temptation for banks to earn margins at the expense of their customers,” Cable told BBC television’s Panorama program, which will be broadcast this evening.

“When we talk about restructuring the banks, what’s going to come out of this is a more competitive system where the customers are not ripped off,” Cable said.

He went on to attack the culture of bonuses. “Unacceptable bonuses are continuing and that is something we want to try to stop,” he said. “That reflects the lack of moral compass.”

Source: Bloomberg

The true extent of the Labour government’s involvement in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001 has been spelled out in stark detail with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a mass of highly classified documents.

Previously secret papers that have been disclosed include a number implicating Tony Blair’s office in many of the events that are to be the subject of the judicial inquiry that David Cameron announced last week.

Among the most damning documents are a series of interrogation reports from MI5 officers that betray their disregard for the suffering of a British resident whom they were questioning at a US airbase in Afghanistan. The documents also show that the officers were content to see the mistreatment continue.

One of the most startling documents is chapter 32 of MI6′s general procedural manual, entitled “Detainees and Detention Operations”, which advises officers that among the “particular sensitivities” they need to consider before becoming directly involved in an operation to detain a terrorism suspect is the question of whether “detention, rather than killing, is the objective of the operation”.

Other disclosed documents show how:

• The Foreign Office decided in January 2002 that the transfer of British citizens from Afghanistan to Guantánamo was its “preferred option”.

• Jack Straw asked for that rendition to be delayed until MI5 had been able to interrogate those citizens.

• Downing Street was said to have overruled FO attempts to provide a British citizen detained in Zambia with consular support in an attempt to prevent his return to the UK, with the result that he too was “rendered” to Guantánamo.

The papers have been disclosed as a result of civil proceedings brought by six former Guantánamo inmates against MI5 and MI6, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the Attorney General’s Office, which they allege were complicit in their illegal detention and torture. … Continue Reading

Two cousins of a British man facing execution in China have arrived in the country to make a last-ditch appeal to authorities for mercy.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, from London, is due to be executed on 29 December after he was convicted of smuggling heroin.

But relatives Soohail and Nasir Shaikh plan to deliver a plea on his behalf to President Hu Jintao.

Mr Shaikh’s supporters say he is mentally ill and Gordon Brown has asked Chinese authorities for clemency.

British consular staff have also flown to the Chinese region of Xinjiang to see the condemned Briton and discuss his case with local officials.

No contact

Legal charity Reprieve, which has taken up the case, said Mr Shaikh’s cousins left the UK on Saturday.

They intend to deliver petitions seeking a legal review to China’s Supreme People’s Court and to the local court in the north-western city of Urumqi where Mr Shaikh was arrested in September 2007.

Reprieve said the men, who are brothers, also planned to appeal to China’s president and to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is responsible for considering petitions for pardon or clemency.

Mr Shaikh has had no contact with his family for two years, but the cousins hope they may be granted a prison visit with him.

The Briton has denied all knowledge of the 4kg of heroin found in his possession.

His family say he has bipolar disorder and was duped by a criminal gang into unwittingly carrying drugs for them.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville said Mr Shaikh’s relatives want to explain that he had “suffered from long-term mental illness” and travelled to China to pursue a “fantasy” belief in a possible career as a pop star.

“They believe he was not responsible for himself and certainly not responsible for drug trafficking,” said our correspondent.

He added that the situation was getting “very desperate” for the Briton because the Chinese authorities do not have a reputation for leniency.

‘Compassionate approach’

Soohail Shaikh says in his petition: “We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty.”

Reprieve’s director Clive Stafford Smith said the Chinese Embassy authorities had been “kind” and opened on Boxing Day to facilitate a visa for this visit, “recognising the devastating blow that this execution date has inflicted on the entire family”.

“We very much hope that this compassionate approach continues to the point of granting Akmal a reprieve,” he said.

So far China has resisted calls to stop the execution, despite the case being raised by the UK 10 times during the last six months at senior diplomatic levels.

The prime minister has also written to China’s leaders to express his dismay after Mr Shaikh’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme People’s Court.

If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.

The head of Russia’s anti-narcotics federal agency says that British troops in Helmand Province are not doing enough to stem production of the world’s deadliest drug.

“Sixty percent of all opiates in the world are produced in the area that the British forces are responsible for,” said Viktor Ivanov.

“There were 25 hectares of opium in 2004. Now there are 90,000. This shows you how effective they are.”

Vast swathes of borderland between Russia and Kazakhstan are prime territory for smuggling heroin from Afghanistan; road and rail are the primary methods of transit.

The drug is smuggled through Central Asia by train. Bundles are ejected for pick-up en route. Some are seized – many are not.

Twenty kilos of heroin were seized earlier this year from conductors who were smuggling it on board the train from Tajikistan to Moscow.

But such hauls are just the tip of the iceberg – only 4% or 5% of heroin coming into Russia is actually captured – a small fraction of the estimated 60 tonnes that arrive from Afghanistan each year.

St Petersburg is one of the worst affected cities in Russia.

Away from the architectural grandeur lies its darker side. Heroin is rife and support is scarce. A small bus is the only needle exchange in the entire city. Methadone substitution is banned. Both mean a big problem with HIV.

Alexsei and Zhanna are both HIV positive heroin addicts

We met Alexsei and Zhanna in their cramped top floor flat. Both are HIV positive heroin addicts. Because of her usage, one half of Zhanna’s body is paralysed. She has not left the flat for three years.

She said: “There is not a single vein left anywhere. Not in my legs, not in my feet, my thighs, stomach or my chest.

“I used to even shoot up in my forehead and my eyes. Wherever you see a bit of blue vein – you stick a needle in there.”

Younger generations are also falling victim to the drug’s ubiquity.

Outside a metro station, we spotted a boy who looks no older than eight. He and his friends are incredibly open about their drug use. They say they steal and wash cars to get enough money to inject daily.

Russia has an estimated 2.5m heroin addicts – most are under the age of 30. For a country in the midst of a deepening demographic crisis, the prospect of a lost generation is a terrifying one.

The incredible heroics of the Special Forces could be revealed for the first time under plans to lift their veil of secrecy.

SAS Entry

The British Government may scrap the practice of never commenting on the clandestine operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS).

A confidential Ministry of Defense review is considering dropping the publicity ban and shedding more light on the vital work of these forces. That could include the MoD confirming the names and details of members killed in action on operations.

But many within the MoD and the Armed Forces believe the publicity ban is vital for the elite soldiers’ security.

‘People are very divided on this. Some feel the forces don’t get the recognition for what they do. Others say that the rules are there to protect them,’ said a source.

Even the existence of the internal review, understood to have been ordered by Defence ministers, was being regarded as a State secret. The MoD yesterday said it was not aware that the policy was being reconsidered.

But authoritative sources later confirmed that officials had been debating the merits of bringing Special Forces’ work into the open – with the strict proviso it did not endanger them.

Some senior Government figures believe revealing more information about the forces could help win support for the war in Afghanistan.

One official said: ‘At present we cannot even name personnel if they are killed on operation.’

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is understood to be sympathetic to the idea.

But Tory defense spokesman Liam Fox warned: ‘War is not a PR exercise. If we can give our troops adequate praise without compromising them, that’s one thing, but we must never allow missions to become media-led.’